PM's nod for Clark to seek UN's top job

Prime Minister John Key says he would support Helen Clark
making a bid for United Nations Secretary-General if she put up
her hand for the job.

But he also played down the prospects of her winning it.

"Those jobs are Herculean tasks to win and there's so much
politics at play that it's not straightforward, but in the
event that she ran, we would definitely support her," Mr Key
told the Herald.

Helen Clark, the former prime minister whom Mr Key beat in
2008, is now head of the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), which means she's No 3 at the UN.

She has not declared for the top job and is unlikely to do so
unless she has substantial backing, but in an interview with
the BBC's Hardtalk programme on Friday, she fuelled
speculation that she is looking for support.

There were three main issues to decide, she said: did the
countries of the United Nations want the position determined
on a regional basis, did they want the traditional diplomatic
style, and was it time for the first woman to lead the
organisation.

It was an attempt to encourage debate about the importance of
promoting the gender issue over the traditional approach.

Mr Key thinks the gender issue is important. "It's high time
that the UN had a woman as Secretary-General.

"There is no question she is a hugely talented politician and
she is uniquely placed, given her leadership of the UNDP," he
said.

"I think it would be a very proud day for New Zealand if she
became the next Secretary-General."

It is common wisdom at the UN that if the decision is made on
a regional basis, the next Secretary-General would come from
Eastern Europe.

A strong Eastern European woman who had the support of key
powers on the Security Council could trump Helen Clark.

The term of Ban Ki-moon, a South Korean, expires at the end
of 2016.

Mr Key is due to meet Helen Clark in New York on Wednesday
morning (NZ time) while he is at the UN to lobby for NZ to
get a seat on the Security Council in 2015 and 2016.

Helen Clark was undoubtedly a very successful politician, but
she does not have statesman status in her own country.

She has no charisma like the encumbent. The UN needs someone
dynamic. By comparison, it seems the Catholic Church has
chosen a leader who has the X factor for reform. Clark is
bland as most regular bureacrats are destined to be.